The big question now is where the Disney and Lucasfilm’s tentpole ultimately lands in comparison to the last installment, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which topped out at $1.33 billion globally. Analysts believe Skywalker has a shot at $1.2 billion to $1.25 billion, a decline of 9 to 6 percent, respectively, from Jedi, after an opening gap of 20 percent.
The movie closes out the Skywalker saga that George Lucas first brought to the big screen 42 years ago. Abrams gathered together numerous stars from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Last Jedi — led by Daisy Ridley as Rey and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren — as well as actors from the original Star Wars pics, including Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and the late Carrie Fisher.
The Star Wars franchise will now take a hiatus from the big screen as Lucasfilm regroups.
Rise of Skywalker capped a record-shattering year for Disney, which has now seen seven of its 2019 releases join the billion-dollar club.
The others are Avengers: Endgame (the top-grossing film of all time, with $2.79 billion globally), The Lion King ($1.65 billion), Frozen 2 ($1.37 billion), Captain Marvel ($1.12 billion), Toy Story 4 (1.07 billion) and Aladdin ($1.05 billion).
Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.31 billion) — which was produced by Disney’s Marvel Studios — and Warner Bros.’ Joker ($1.06 billion) were the other two 2019 movies achieving the milestone.
Overseas, Skywalker‘s top market is the U.K. ($72 million), followed by Germany ($61.7 million), Japan ($56.4 million), France ($50.7 million), Australia ($30.3 million), China ($20.1 million), Spain (also $20.1 million), Mexico ($16 million), Italy ($14.7 million), Brazil ($12.9 million), Russia ($11.6 million) and Sweden ($10.9 million).
